ERIC IDLE (Book, Lyrics and Music)has multi-hyphenated his way through life assiduously avoiding a proper job, from a writer and actor in the legendary “Monty Python” TV series and movies, to the creator and director of “The Rutles,” the pre-fab four, whose legend will last a lunchtime. He has appeared on stage in drag singing rude songs at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as well as performing in two highly successful tours, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000) and The Greedy Bastard Tour (2003), for which he journeyed 15,000 miles across North America in a bus. His Greedy Bastard Diary of that tour is published by Harper Collins. His play Pass the Butler ran for five months in London’s West End; he has written two novels, Hello Sailor and The Road to Mars, a children’s book, The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat, and a bedside companion, The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book.
JOHN DU PREZ (Composer). A Trevelyan Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, and Associate of the Royal College of Music, he entered the film industry in 1978 composing additional music for Monty Python’s Life of Brian. This began a long association with Eric Idle, leading eventually to their current writing partnership. He has scored more than 20 feature films including The Meaning of Life, A Private Function, A Fish Called Wanda, Once Bitten, UHF and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I, II and III. Other Python projects include the Contractual Obligation Album, Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl and The Fairly Incomplete & Rather Badly Illustrated Monty Python Song Book. He was musical director for Eric Idle’s two North American stage tours, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000) and The Greedy Bastard Tour (2003). This is his Broadway debut.
MONTY PYTHON Is he God or Godot, an agent of the devil or an agent of the William Morris Agency, or is he, as some have argued, a fictitious character invented in 1969 by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin in a desperate attempt to find a title for their rather silly TV show? Whatever the truth, he is the eponymous impresario who fronts “The Flying Circus,” The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, And Now for Something Completely Different and who appeared Live at Drury Lane, City Center and the Hollywood Bowl. He has fronted numerous books including The Big Red Book and The Papperbok as well as many CDs, DVDs and matching ties and handkerchiefs. He is currently in retirement in an old jokes home near Dover, anxiously awaiting Nighthood and a Knightnurse. This is his first Broadway show. www.PythOnline.com
MIKE NICHOLS (Director), formerly half of the legendary comedy team of Nichols and May, has been one of the leading directors of stage and screen for more than 30 years. Nichols won his first of eight Tony Awards for Barefoot in the Park. He then directed an unprecedented string of hits that included The Knack, Luv (Tony, Best. Dir.), The Odd Couple (Tony, Best Dir.), The Apple Tree, Plaza Suite (Tony, Best Dir.), Prisoner of Second Avenue (Tony, Best Dir.), The Gin Game (winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize) and Streamers (winner of the New York Drama Critics Award). He directed highly successful revivals of The Little Foxes and Uncle Vanya, the U.S. productions of Comedians as well as The Real Thing (Tony, Best Dir.), Hurlyburly and Waiting for Godot. As a theatrical producer, he presented Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway and won the Tony for his blockbuster show, Annie. Film credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate (Academy Award for Best Direction), Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards From the Edge, Regarding Henry, The Birdcage, Primary Colors and Closer, and for HBO: “Wit” and “Angels in America.” Mr. Nichols has received the George Abbott Award, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honor, and has been honored by the Museum of Television and Radio, the American Museum of the Moving Image for his contribution to the film industry and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
CASEY NICHOLAW (Choreographer) made his Broadway debut as a choreographer with Spamalot (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations). This season he is making his Broadway directorial debut with The Drowsy Chaperone at the Minskoff Theatre. Other NY credits: Sinatra: His Voice. His World. His Way. featuring the Rockettes (Radio City Music Hall); Bye Bye Birdie (City Center Encores!); Can-Can (musical staging, City Center Encores!); and Candide (NY Philharmonic, soon to be on PBS’ “Great Performances”). Regionally he’s choreographed many original musicals, including The Road to Hollywood (Goodspeed), Lucky Duck (Old Globe) and The Prince and the Pauper (5th Avenue Theatre, the Ordway).
TIM HATLEY (Set & Costume Design). Winner of 2002 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Private Lives on Broadway. Winner of the 2002 Olivier Award for Humble Boy and Private Lives in the West End and a 1997 Olivier Award for Stanley at the Royal National Theatre. Broadway credits: Private Lives, Vincent in Brixton, The Crucible, Stanley. Film credits: Stage Beauty (Costume Designer) and Closer (Production Designer). Previous theatre work includes working with Theatre de Complicite, Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, English National Opera and London’s West End. Graduated from Central Saint Martins School of Art, London. www.TimHatley.com
HUGH VANSTONE (Lighting Design)has designed lighting for plays, musicals and operas in London, New York and around the world. He has received three Olivier Awards for his work, most recently for Pacific Overtures (Donmar). New York credits: Bombay Dreams (Broadway); Life (x) 3 (Circle in the Square); Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night and Hamlet (BAM); The Graduate (Plymouth); Follies (Belasco); Blast! (Broadway); The Unexpected Man (Promenade); The Blue Room (Cort); Closer (Music Box); Art (Royale).
ACME SOUND PARTNERS (Sound Design) Broadway: The Light in the Piazza, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dracula the Musical, Twentieth Century, Fiddler on the Roof, Never Gonna Dance, The Boy From Oz, Avenue Q, Gypsy, La Bohème (Drama Desk Award), Flower Drum Song, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, Bells Are Ringing, A Class Act, Jane Eyre, The Full Monty. Other New York: Harlem Song, Thunder Knocking on the Door, The Seagull with Mike Nichols.
DAVID BRIAN BROWN (Wig & Hair Design) Broadway: The Glass Menagerie, Fiddler on the Roof, Nine, Gypsy, Flower Drum Song, The Boys From Syracuse, Sweet Smell of Success, The Invention of Love, Aida, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Rainmaker, The Iceman Cometh, Annie Get Your Gun, Little Me, Chicago, Sideshow, 1776, The Herbal Bed, Steel Pier, Big, Sunset Boulevard, the world premiere of Whistle Down the Wind. Film credits include Angels In America (Emmy nominated), To Wong Foo…, The Paper, A Time to Live, Liza in Concert and The Invisible Thread.
GREGORY MEEH (Special Effects Design) designs, builds and supplies special effects for theatre, opera, dance, industrials, television, film and print. Some recent credits include Ka for Cirque du Soleil; the Broadway productions of Nine, Into the Woods, Aida, Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (Eddy Award), Ragtime, Show Boat, An Inspector Calls (Drama Desk Award), Damn Yankees, Angels in America, Tommy, Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables; and the television productions of “Fool’s Fire” for American Playhouse, “Late Show,” “SNL” and “One Life to Live.”
ELAINE J. MCCARTHY (Projection Design). Broadway: Good Vibrations, After the Fall, Assassins, Wicked, Man of La Mancha, Into the Woods, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Green Bird. Off-Broadway: Embedded, The Stendhal Syndrome, Suitcase, The Thing About Men, Speaking in Tongues. Regional: Limonade tous les Jours, Fran’s Bed, Once in a Lifetime, Hair, Blue Man Group: Tubes (Chicago). Opera: Dead Man Walking (NYC Opera), War and Peace (Kirov and Metropolitan Opera), Tan Dun’s The Gate, Peter Sellars’ The Peony Pavilion. Awards: 2003 Eddy Award.
JOSEPH A. CAMPAYNO (Makeup Design). Theatre: M. Butterfly, Into the Woods. Film/TV: The Pink Panther, “Angels in America” (Emmy Award), Unfaithful, Behind Enemy Lines, The Siege, Bullets Over Broadway, A League of Their Own, Regarding Henry, When Harry Met Sally, “Lonesome Dove,” and Working Girl.
TODD ELLISON (Musical Director/Vocal Arranger). Credits include Lestat, 42nd Street, Amour, Wild Party, On the Town, Once Upon a Mattress, How to Succeed…, She Loves Me, Cats, Starlight Express, Annie 2, Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Incidental music: A Class Act, Taller…Dwarf. International: Vienna Konzerthaus: Jerry Hadley, Dawn Upshaw. Accompanied: Nicole Kidman, Barry Manilow, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker. 143 G.
LARRY HOCHMAN (Orchestrations). Tony nominations: Fiddler…, A Class Act. Broadway: Jane Eyre, four others. Regional: 23 shows including Señor Discretion (Loesser premiere). Film: Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp II, Geppetto, Annie, …Mattress, A Christmas Carol, 12 others. Composer: “Wonder Pets” (series), Little Mermaid II (add’l music), “Amazing Stories”, documentaries, In Memoriam (publ. E.B. Marks). Contributing orchestrator: five Broadway shows, Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Michael Feinstein, Barry Manilow, Boston Pops, San Francisco Symphony. www.LarryHochman.net
GLEN KELLY (Music Arrangements) is music supervisor and arranger of The Producers. Other Broadway: The Frogs, Beauty and the Beast, Steel Pier, A Christmas Carol, High Society and Dance a Little Closer. For New York City Ballet: Double Feature (music arrangements and libretto, w/Susan Stroman) and Thou Swell. Future projects: Young Frankenstein.
MICHAEL KELLER (Music Coordinator) is currently conductor/drummer for Marvin Hamlisch. Music coordinator for Wicked, All Shook Up, The Lion King, Avenue Q, Mamma Mia!, La Cage aux Folles, Fiddler on the Roof, Bombay Dreams, The Boy From Oz, Aida, Barbra Streisand concerts (1994 and 2001). Life is complete with wife Pamela Sousa and children Zach and Alexis.
PETER LAWRENCE (Associate Director) has worked with Mike Nichols on seven original stage productions and one television series. He directed the national tours of The Graduate, Sunset Boulevard, Social Security, Lost in Yonkers, Broadway Bound and Rumors. He was executive producer for both Miss Saigon and Les Misérables and originated 17 Broadway productions as production stage manager. Mr. Lawrence taught in the drama departments of the University of Hawaii and Transylvania College and was the drama critic for the Honolulu Advertiser.
DARLENE WILSON (Associate Choreographer). Broadway assoc. choreography credits: Side Show, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Flower Drum Song (revival), The Christmas Spectacular and Sinatra at Radio City and the film Exit. Broadway performing credits: Spamalot, Chicago, Side Show, Sunset Blvd., Cats, No Strings for Encores!
